Medical record third party consultation 21 April 2020 at 11:11AM in Health & beauty MoneySaving 7 replies 151 views

summitg

I recently got hold of my medical record for the first time and upon reading it i noticed that there was an appointment made by someone else from years ago that i had no idea about.
The appointment was made by my mum at the time when i was living with her, i was going through a lot of depression and not going out. The notes basically state that she visited the GP and was concerned about my health etc. Funny thing is that she never mentioned this to me and neither did the GP surgery.
Is this even legal? i gave no consent whatsoever. Can i get this removed? thanks in advance.

Undervalued

Were you an adult when your Mum went to see the doctor? Assuming you were then the doctor would be very limited in what he could say to her, but he can listen to her concerns and make a note of them. It is not uncommon for a family member or even a close friend to make a doctor aware of their concerns. If you have online access to your GP records, all letters to and from the GP plus whether you chose to take part in any national screening program etc are all logged. You can come home from an appointment, log on and immediately see what the doctor said about you!

You cannot normally get a medical record removed because it is a record of what the doctor thought at the time, even if it later turns out to be wrong. If fact if you ever had grounds to make a claim for negligence etc you would be very grateful that the records couldn't have been changed.

You can insist on a note of your views being inserted alongside any record that bothers you.

First step, if you are concerned, is to speak to the doctor.

QuackQuackOops

What harm does it do being on your records anyway?
Dont worry about it.

Undervalued

QuackQuackOops said:

What harm does it do being on your records anyway?
Dont worry about it.

Well that probably depends a bit on what it actually says!

If it says something like "The patient's mother came to see me to express concern about her son's mental health. I listened to her concerns but explained that I could not discuss the matter with her without her son's permission" then that is a simple statement of fact plus the doctor covering his own back.

Anything beyond that would be a concern as the doctor certainly shouldn't be discussing the matter with a family member without permission (assuming the OP is an adult and has capacity but even then there are restrictions).

summitg

The notes do go in to some detail, it states i was spending most of my time in my room on the computer. only coming out to eat, not having a job, really quiet, that my mum was concerned i was going to end up with the same problems that my father had, suggest OH appointment and/or Dr appointment.
I was 20 at the time and now i'm 25, it's just annoying that the first thing someone will read on my medical record is this and i had no part of it whatsoever. 

Undervalued

It is a difficult one.

I assume, but maybe wrong, that your Mum was a patient at the same practice? If so, the GP wouldn't know why she had an appointment until she walked through the door. He is obliged to keep some record of it for everybody's protection. If he didn't the appointments system would still show that she had been to see him and he might be victim to any kind of scam claiming that he had ignored some serious illness that she presented!

As I said earlier he would have been very restricted in what he could say. I suppose he could have said "Go away, I will report this to your son and if, and only if, he gives permission I will contact you". Is that what you would have liked to have happened?

If, and I really think this is unlikely, he discussed your situation in detail with her then you have grounds to make a complaint. However, with hindsight would you really want to?

As I said, if it bothers you make contact with the doctor and discuss the matter.

suki1964

You cant have anything omitted from your records, but you can ask for an appointment with the doctor who wrote those notes to discuss the situation and the notes of that consultation added

Undervalued

suki1964 said:

You cant have anything omitted from your records, but you can ask for an appointment with the doctor who wrote those notes to discuss the situation and the notes of that consultation added

Yes.....
Although I understand the reasoning behind that under the vast majority of situations, having thought about the OP's concerns I just wonder what happens when the consultation didn't involve the patient and apparently happened without his permission?

If the doctor knew the reason for the appointment should he have allowed it to take place without obtaining his patient's permission? I suspect, but obviously don't know, that the OP's mother was also a patient so the doctor was somewhat ambushed.

In my opinion if the doctor discussed the OP's health without permission then that is a clear breach of confidence and should be a disciplinary matter. If he merely listened to the mother's concerns then that is a difficult one but still questionable. He should really have sent her away until he obtained the OP's permission.

So, having thought about it, I suspect if the OP goes to see the doctor to discuss this he will be very defensive. 

I am not sure if it is physically possible for a doctor to delete a record (or request that one be deleted)? Equally I am not sure if it is allowed under certain circumstances? If the answer to both is yes then it may well be possible to pressure the doctor into doing so as the easy way out of a sticky situation.